Back of card: Light green with white printing. A diamond pattern, 3 wide, 5 high, with what, at first glance, might be mistaken for a fleur de lys in each, but which, on close inspection, turns out to be a crusader on horseback. May be inverted.

Comments: Sometimes the politics of a deck overwhelms everything else. When I first saw the box, I was intrigued. I thought this would be another Arthurian deck. There's a lot of those, they're popular. Or that it would plunge us deep into Christian mysticism.

I was shocked to see this was about the Crusades. I very nearly threw it in the trash.

If we lived in ordinary times, the Crusades could be thought of as merely an unpleasant embarrassment. We might excuse its horrific slaughter as the only way that Europe could rediscover ancient wisdom, except for the fact that Venetian traders subsequently did a much better, much less messy job of exactly that.

As it is, the deck shows us "Christian" mercenaries stealing & plundering the Moslem world. Just as they have been doing, with ever greater intensity, since a certain day in March, 2003. In this deck, a revolting & smug image of the Christian faith is pushed into our faces again & again & again. A mute reminder of the power of US-based Christian fundamentalists today. By contrast, Islam, as a faith, is never shown in this deck. This is obviously because the Islamic faith is just not important. Islamic culture is not important. Except, of course, as a source for trinkets & gew-gaws, which we may steal at will & then pass off as priceless artifacts to the rubes back home.

Unique to this display: There are no Wands shown. There were too many other cards to show you.